I am organizing the tape library in our CS department and found this bit which I can't identify. As I wrote on the youtube page:

Don't know much about this video, the case was labelled "AI Aesthetics Test 10", with "Robots" written on it in marker. Does anyone recognize this stuff, or have an idea of what is going on? I assume that the orange box is some sort of computer controlled robot. The moving lines on sides seem to track its position. There are two different types of lines, too.

The date on it is 10/08/99. The lab specification, 2C, doesn't match up to the way any of our department work areas are labelled - and yes, I checked with the professors who are old and tenured.

Magnets are an interesting idea, especially because there is no real sense of scale - though magnets would demand the box be of some size in order to keep it pointed in the right direction and not spinning around randomly as the magnet moves. Though maybe a magnet on one side would let the rest of the box drag, but it doesn't always feel like that when watching it play.

Looking at the way the thing moves, I assumed it was some sort of simple, wheeled, remote controlled robot under the box. There is a loose jerkiness to the movement that makes it feel like it isn't stuck to the platform, or necessarily stuck box-to-chassis very well.

There is only one robot/moving-thing, the other boxes never move under their own power.

Due to the title, my impression is that the robot is secondary to the test. Some sort of tracking is going on, the lines on the side are following (or guiding?) the motion of the orange box. I was thinking that this was some sort of "can a computer program make aesthetic decisions" test, in real space.

it might just be a configuration test, and not the actual experiment - for example, just to make sure the tracking is working properly and the software doesnt get confused between red and green boxes . . .